Beyond the sphere’s of my everyday job, my family, home projects, and so on, I’ve decided to embark on two new “projects” of sorts, both wholly unrelated and in some ways contradictory - one is about productivity, the other something of its antithesis, at least according to my wife. I’ll safe the less productive one for a later post, but first, the “useful” stuff.
GTD (Getting Things Done)
First up, I’ve finally decided to get serious about implementing Getting Things Done. I’ve read so many blog posts from so many individuals whom I respect and admire about how GTD from David Allen has basically changed their lives - making use of relatively simple organizational techniques in order to break down the morass of clutter into a series of easily defined, manageable, next actions. Less stress achieved through less clutter - relaxed productivity as it were. From David Allen’s site, GTD involves:
- Capturing anything and everything that has your attention
- Defining actionable things discretely into outcomes and concrete next steps
- Organizing reminders and information in the most streamlined way, in appropriate categories, based on
how and when you need to access them - Keeping current and “on your game” with appropriately frequent reviews of the six horizons of your
commitments (purpose, vision, goals, areas of focus, projects, and actions)
My plan:
Step One: Read the book (mostly done)
Step Two: Research other’s experiences with it, especially in terms of how to apply it to Outlook. A quick list I found - Jeff Sandquist, Dan Grossman, Paul Coia, Chad Dickerson, Dwayne Melancon, and well, lots more.
Step Three: Start implementing GTD, with an immediate goal of getting control of my Outlook inbox, folders, and rules (I have dozens, many very old, which I feel handcuffed to). I’ll be looking into ClearContext again to see how this goes.
I’ll blog about my experiences here, partly to share for other’s benefit, and partly as a public shaming mechanism (i.e. I’ll feel bad laying it out here, and then bailing).
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Kevin:
Thanks for giving ClearContext another try. FYI - we’re days away from formally releasing our 3.0 product, which supports Outlook 2007 and Vista. Details and early access to the 3.0 download are here:
http://www.clearcontext.com/beta/
Also, you might find of interest these collected links on how some of our customers are adapting ClearContext to their personal GTD implementation:
http://www.clearcontext.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=328
Please feel free to drop me any questions you might have as you use the product. Good luck getting organized.
I like what Allen says. For Outlook though, in short, he suggests that you use categories for tasks based on where you will do them. I’ve found I do most of my stuff in the category of “@computer” so that category isn’t that helpful. I use a three letter all cap project code to start a task (”GTD: Setup categories”) and then put it in the category of “@computer”. That way I have a cross-reference on it. Also he likes to make calendar events for tasks to be done on a day. I don’t. I’d rather give the task a due date and keep my calendar for appointments.
It may be interesting to attend his seminar too, I found it to be a good complement to the book – David will be in Seattle on Nov 30th. http://www.davidco.com/seminars/seminar_the_roadmap.php
im holdin my breath to hear the results. Sounds sarcastic but, seriously - I am going to read your blog. My inbox(s) are a disaster and the Pocket PC’s and blackberrys designed to simplify things have multiplied and complicated the problem.
I have been looking at GTD for a better workflow for myself as well as my clients. After reading a lot of the posts in your Step Two, two questions keep popping up:
1) How does a person remain motivated to stick to it until a workflow is developed into a natural lifestyle?
2) Is there more to it than a system to handle files and email and paper?